Scout orders were to go from Trifuge to Torment and thence to Hrunting. So the Tin-pot spent a bit more than 12 hours accelerating up to 1000km/s before they jumped.
The jump week passed uneventfully. Dead-eye decided to make a list of activities with which to wile away the jump week:
- Canasta
- Drinking
- Learn a new instrument
- Burlesque
- Beach volleyball
- Golf
- Carousing
- Carolling
- VHS Cassette tapes
- Board games
- Learn a new language
- Puppetry of the penis
- Cooking - Masterchef
- Poker
- Charades
- Drug Week!
- Karaoke
- Disco - rollerball
- Party, party, party
- Morris dancing
After the week passed, Tin-pot arrived in Torment going at 1000km/s. Sure enough, the illegal Imperium base there had been destroyed. There was Zhodani radio activity, so they kept quiet and burned the jump fuel for the next jump to Hrunting.
Another week.
Tin-pot arrived at Hrunting. Straight away, comms was saturated with messages on Zhodani frequencies. They had calculated the jump to position themselves to be out by the gas giant in such a spot so as to be travelling at scoop velocity after maximum deceleration - thence to refuel and jump out. This whole manoeuvre would take 34 hours. Within an hour, they were Medium-rang pinged (1 light-hour range) from the star port here, and got a "report to star base" message. They ignored it actively. When they did not comply, they detected incoming 6G missiles. These missiles would arrive in 30 hours, so they had a choice, get one parsec of jump fuel, and do a safe jump, or get four and do a "less than 100-diameters" jump. This would give them a 1-in-6 chance of a misjump, but they figured they would risk it, in that they would be able to jump-2 when they arrived should they land any where awkward.
They jumped to 1019, an empty system with no misjump.
Then jumped to Garda-Vilis. This was an Imperium Navy base with four destroyers docked.
Belter (Darryl) checked in with the scouts. Standage (Ian) checked in with the Diplomats Corps. They wanted him to seek out someone of note in the Zhodani, and get down to talking - a protracted war would harm both empires. The Scouts asceded the demands of the Diplomat's - after all the Diplomats would be paying. Unlike the Scout Service, which is a neutral corporation who will do scouting for anyone that pays them, the Diplomats are one half of the Imperium (the other half being the Military). The Diplomats were saturating the Sword Worlds systems and the Darrian empire's systems with as many diplomats as they could get a hold of in the hope of finding the main Zhodani fleet.
To kill two birds with one stone, the Scouts suggested they go via Zeta 2, another illegal and secret Imperium navy base, to see if it had fallen to Zhodani. Then Margesi, then Gungnir.
Zeta 2 was still held by Imperium - they jumped out fast as they could when heavy Imperium radio traffic saturated the air.
Margesi was a short dock and refuel, and then to Gungnir.
As luck would have it, Gungnir was well-occupied by Zhodani. It was a large battle fleet indeed. One battleship, two cruisers, ten destroyers and numerous support vessels. Not attempting any stealth at all, the Tinpot headed for the class B port and docked. They were greeted at the airlock by Zhodani marines and escorted to one of the hotels in the starport. Here they were put up in luxury and were content until Belter noticed, out the window of the hotel, that the Tinpot was being swarmed over by Zhodanis, and they were dismantling it. He rushed to the door of the suite but there were guards outside who refused to let them out. Belter screamed and ranted, but the marines stood firm. Slowly, over the course of the day, the Tinpot was taken to pieces, while the party looked on helplessly.
That evening an envoy of the Zhodani arrived and escorted the group to another building in the starport with the envoy and a squad of marines. Here they were introduced to Major General Olga Seskia, and her sub-altern adjutant Aida Fedotova. Belter protested loudly and impatiently that how DARE they touch his space ship, and how DARE they interfere with possessions of the NEUTRAL Scout Service. Aida calmly reminded the group that changing the transponder of a ship was highly illegal and that the Zhodani was in their rights to confiscate it, or destroy it, and that he should sit down and shut up. The ship was to be turned back into the Lollipop, and the Tinpot transponder to be incinerated.
Standage asked if he could speak with Maj Gen Sieskia in private in that he was authorized by the Imperium Diplomatic Corps to speak for them. She agreed and outlined Zhodani demands:
- All three Imperium bases in the Neutral zone (Zeta 2, Torment and 494-908) to be abandoned and destroyed.
- As compensation for the violation of the Neutral Zone treaty, the Darrian empire shall cede to Zhodani interests
Standage was to take the demands back to the Imperium base in Margesi. So they took off pronto heading for there.
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